This book looks at the artistic output of the Islamic civilization from its origins to the modern day in painting, calligraphy, textiles, decorative arts, and architecture. Among more than 100 color illustrations are a 16th-century Safavid painting (in which an elephant is actually made up of dozens of men and other creatures), a gorgeously penned monogram of Sultan Murat III, a lush 18th-century carpet with a sunburst of paisley, an elegantly filigreed wooden beggar's bowl from the 19th-century, and the mosaicked Nasir ul Molk Mosque in Iran.